{"id":8725,"date":"2017-05-03T01:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T06:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=8725"},"modified":"2019-11-14T14:04:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T19:04:17","slug":"gorillaz-breaks-long-time-hiatus-with-humanz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/8725","title":{"rendered":"Gorillaz Breaks Long-Time Hiatus With “Humanz”"},"content":{"rendered":"

(05.02.2017) By Jared Martin<\/strong> — Gorillaz, Damon Albarn\u2019s long running virtual band has made its return after a six year hiatus with Humanz<\/em>, a collection of electropop and hip-hop songs about the apocalypse.<\/p>\n

The appeal of Gorillaz has always been the collaborators. In the past, Albarn always blended his production seamlessly with guests as diverse as De La Soul, Bobby Womack, Lou Reed, and MF DOOM.<\/em><\/p>\n

The guest list on Humanz <\/em>is just as attractive, with appearances by rappers Vince Staples, Danny Brown, and Pusha T, along with dancehall singer Popcaan, soul singer Mavis Staples, and supermodel\/disco singer Grace Jones. Unfortunately, the guests don\u2019t mix as well this time around.<\/p>\n

Some guests are underused, like Grace Jones on the song \u201cCharger\u201d where she only has a couple lines. \u201cBroccoli\u201d sensation D.R.A.M. appears in the song \u201cAndromeda,\u201d but his silky smooth vocals are buried in a busy chorus.<\/p>\n

Other guest performances feel out of place, like the returning De La Soul on \u201cMomentz,\u201d which is a very fun song, but doesn\u2019t have the laidback air of a typical De La Soul song.<\/p>\n

Some, however, do fit in quite well. Popcaan delivers a solid performance on lead single \u201cSaturnz Barz,\u201d that features Damon Albarn as the band\u2019s cartoon lead singer 2D. Pusha T drops some solid bars on \u201cLet Me Out,\u201d and Vince Staples opens up the album with the towering \u201cAscension.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a lot of the songs are decent, Humanz <\/em>feels less like a cohesive project than previous Gorillaz releases. Originally, the cartoon band was front and center, but now it feels like it\u2019s just tacked on because it needs to be, and some of the charm of blending real people with a fake band is gone.<\/p>\n

Humanz <\/em>is a fun album with a lot to offer for your Saturday night playlist. \u201cAscension,\u201d \u201cSaturnz Barz\u201d and \u201cStrobelite\u201d are great to dance to, but unfortunately Humanz <\/em>lacks the narrative or charm of Demon Days <\/em>or Plastic Beach,<\/em> and comes off as an album that anyone could have done, rather than a distinct \u201cGorillaz\u201d project.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(05.02.2017) By Jared Martin — Gorillaz, Damon Albarn\u2019s long running virtual band has made its return after a six year hiatus with Humanz, a collection of electropop and hip-hop songs about the apocalypse. The appeal of Gorillaz has always been the collaborators. In the past, Albarn always blended his production seamlessly with guests as diverse as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10856,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8725\/revisions\/10856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}